1959 Japanese House of Councillors election

{{Infobox election

| election_name = 1959 Japanese House of Councillors election

| country = Japan

| flag_year = 1870

| type = parliamentary

| ongoing = no

| previous_election = 1956 Japanese House of Councillors election

| previous_year = 1956

| next_election = 1962 Japanese House of Councillors election

| next_year = 1962

| seats_for_election = 127 of the 250 seats in the House of Councillors

| majority_seats = 126

| election_date = 2 June 1959

| image_size = 150x150px

| image1 = Nobusuke Kishi.jpg

| leader1 = Nobusuke Kishi

| party1 = Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

| seats_after1 = 132

| seat_change1 = {{increase}}10

| popular_vote1 = 12,120,598

| percentage1 = 41.2%

| swing1 = {{increase}}4.5%

| image2 = Suzuki Mosaburo.JPG

| leader2 = Mosaburō Suzuki

| party2 = Japan Socialist Party

| seats_after2 = 85

| seat_change2 = {{increase}}5

| popular_vote2 = 7,794,754

| percentage2 = 26.5%

| swing2 = {{decrease}}3.4%

| image4 =

| leader4 =

| party4 = Ryokufūkai (1947–1960)

| seats_after4 = 11

| seat_change4 = {{decrease}}20

| popular_vote4 = 2,382,703

| percentage4 = 8.1%

| swing4 = {{decrease}}2.0%

| image5 = Sanzō Nosaka photographed by Shigeru Tamura.jpg

| leader5 = Sanzō Nosaka

| party5 = Japanese Communist Party

| seats_after5 = 3

| seat_change5 = {{increase}}1

| popular_vote5 = 551,196

| percentage5 = 1.9%

| swing5 = {{decrease}}0.2%

| title = President of the House of Councillors

| posttitle = President of the House of Councillors-designate

| before_election = Yūzō Shigemune

| before_party = Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

| after_election = Yutaka Terao

| after_party = Liberal Democratic Party (Japan)

}}{{Politics of Japan}}

House of Councillors elections were held in Japan on 2 June 1959,[http://www.stat.go.jp/data/chouki/zuhyou/27-13.xls Table 13: Persons Elected and Votes Polled by Political Parties - Ordinary Elections for the House of Councillors (1947–2004)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110323055016/http://www.stat.go.jp/data/chouki/zuhyou/27-13.xls |date=2011-03-23 }} Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications electing half the seats in the House. The Liberal Democratic Party won the most seats. Kōji Harashima, who later become a founding member and the first chairman of Kōmeitō, was elected to the Diet for the first time as one of several Soka Gakkai-affiliated independents.

During the campaign, Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi and MITI began to discuss the now-famous "income doubling" plan, although it was temporarily shelved due to disputes between party factions and the looming importance of the US–Japan Security Treaty revision issue. The plan would not be revived until the tenure of Hayato Ikeda, beginning in 1960.{{Cite journal|last=Fukui|first=Haruhiro|date=1972|title=Economic Planning in Postwar Japan: A Case Study in Policy Making|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2642940|journal=Asian Survey|volume=12|issue=4|pages=341–342|doi=10.2307/2642940|issn=0004-4687}}